Hurricane Katrina trailer parks close down

Hurricane Katrina trailer parks close down

Trailer parks set up for hurricane Katrina victims are being closed down, nearly three years after the August 2005 disaster. There are fears people will be made homeless or forced into accommodation they can't afford. The federal disaster agency, Fema, says it has moved 95% of households out of the trailers

Friday 6 June 2008 10.56 EDT
First published on Friday 6 June 2008 10.56 EDT

Hope, Arkansas: Some of about 20,000 mobile homes and travel trailers that are being removed from the municipal airport

Port Sulphur, Louisiana: Kimber Smith stands in the Diamond trailer park. Most residents will receive a federal subsidy to move to apartments, but affordable rental housing is scarce in areas like New Orleans and Baton Rouge

Port Sulphur, Louisiana: Doctors fear tens of thousands of children were exposed to dangerous levels of the cancer-causing agent formaldehyde in the post-Katrina trailers and could have lifelong illnesses

Port Sulphur, Louisiana: Kailah Smith, 18 months, sleeps on a mattress turned mouldy from rain leaks in her family's Diamond park trailer. She has gone to hospital four times with bronchitis since they moved in and her parents blame the living conditions

Port Sulphur, Louisiana: Michael St Ann reads Fema notices posted on his trailer door in the Diamond trailer park. St Ann lost his home in Katrina and is trying to move on to a property he recently bought

Port Sulphur, Louisiana: Nakeva Narcisse and daughter Asanta Mackey, five, outside their trailer in the Diamond park. Asanta has a persistent cough and is one of the children doctors fear have been left ill from the living conditions